CENFO represented Chinese Patent Application No. 202011426***.6, titled “AUTOMATIC DRIVING CONTROL METHOD, EQUIPMENT, STORAGE MEDIUM AND DEVICE”, and issued at July 27, 2022. In response to the Office Action issued by the Examiner, after CENFO replied the first office action and the second office action, the case was issued, and CENFO won the patent right for the client!

After analyzing the reference document 1 (D1) and the reference document 2 (D2), CENFO’s Attorney submitted that the intervention conditions in D1 refer to the driving state of the driver, not the driving state of the vehicle. Meanwhile, in D2, the takeover reminder is given based on the driver’s state information, which is different from the driving state of the vehicle in the present application. In the present application, in order to give the driver enough time to take over the function, when the alarm prompt time exceeds the preset time threshold, the emergency stop level is determined according to the driving speed of the target vehicle. However, the alarm prompt in D2 does not involve relevant content, so the alarm prompt method in D2 cannot achieve the technical effect of this solution in the present application. Moreover, when those skilled in the art face the problem of the technical problem “for not giving the driver enough time to take over the function, it is easy to cause a safety accident”, the conventional technical means is to park the vehicle by force, which is different from the distinguishing technical features of the present application.

In the end, CENFO’s Attorney successfully persuaded the examiner to authorize the patent based on the examiner’s opinion and the understanding of the three-step method of inventiveness, which protected the rights and interests of the client.

Source: Website of CENFO